Professional Certificate In Packaging Design

You! The passionate closet creative, who feels like taking the first step to become a Graphic Designer; because you're not quite ready to take that giant step forward enrolling in a design course (It's okay, we have all been there once in our lives).

Course Outline

The Professional Certificate in Packaging Design will equip students with a strong fundamental skill set in visual literacy, technical executions and design software competency. Apart from having a strong design fundamental, students will also learn the importance of packaging structure construction, technicalities, print production and choosing the right packaging material. Above all, students will be able to effectively create a good packaging design that fits any requirements.

Learning outcomes

Understanding the elements and principles of design

Understanding the importance of design visual literacy and how to use it to communicate effectively

Developing skill sets for the use of basic and advanced Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop

Understanding the concept of Typography and how to correctly use the right Typeface for the right application

Creating the right packaging for different packaging applications and requirements

Core Outline

Visual Communication

Typography and Communication Design

This module allows students to explore and embark on their creative journey to discover and cultivate what it takes to become a successful visual communication designer. Students will learn the importance of how to integrate basic design elements, principles of design, visual composition and relationships to develop and resolve visual problems. Specifically, this course focuses on the design process, function, exploration of various media, graphical experimentation, theoretical and practical skills of visual communication design.

The aim of this module is to provide students an insightful experience on the role of visual communication design, purpose, function, process and contemporary practices of visual communication.

This module provides students with the theoretical and practical experiences of typography as a visual language and its application in visual communication design. Students will learn the history of type, anatomy, terminology, type classifications, principles of typography, typographic layout, type aesthetic and type choices consideration. The emphasis includes an in-depth understanding of the role, purpose, and function of typography.

The aim of this module is to provide students with the understanding of how typographic elements such as letter structure, legibility, readability, tone of voices, type personality, characteristics, mood, selection of type choices, integration of other design elements and visual compositional relationships can create a visual impact in visual communication design today.

Digital Studios I (Illustrator)

Digital Studios II (Photoshop)

This module introduces students to the essential vector drawing tools to unlock their creative potential with Adobe Illustrator while learning useful shortcuts to enhance their design workflow. Students will learn from fundamental to the advanced techniques of adobe illustrator to create and construct logo design, 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional graphics, special visual effects, typographical graphics, realistic illustrations, perspective drawing and 3D packaging mock up presentation.

The aim of this module is to equip students with the industry professional skills and techniques to edit and create vector visual graphics and special visual effects in the world of visual culture and highly visual saturated society today.

This module introduces students to the professional practice and experts’ choice of digital image editing, manipulation and photo retouching tools for graphic design and multimedia with Adobe Photoshop. Students will learn from fundamental to the advanced skills and techniques of Adobe Photoshop to create special visual effects, artistic interpretation of images and enhance digital photography. The emphasis includes design process, exploration of advanced Photoshop techniques by integrating raster and vector graphics with Adobe Illustrator to maximizing the creative potential of the tools to create appealing visuals to effectively engage the audiences.

The aim of this module is to provide students, graphic designer, web designer, multimedia designer, photographer as well as special effects artist with the professional skills to digital image edit, retouch, process digital image confidently and professionally in your respective profession.

Packaging and Print Technology

This module offers students an in-depth study of the principles of packaging design and the design process from concepts to three-dimensional forms. Not only will students explore key concepts of the packaging design development process, aesthetics, and visual composition organization, they will also learn about structural construction, technicalities, print production, packaging material and its properties, mechanisms and the overall presentation of the packaging design. The emphasis includes the sustainability and environmental issues associated with packaging design.

The aim of this module is to provide students with the necessary skills to analyse and comprehend how packaging design elements (size, shapes, colour, material, graphics, typography, visual images, graphical treatments), choices of material and appropriate printing options can be integrated together as an effective marketing tool, creating impact and influence on consumers’ perception and buying decisions.

Course Duration

Maximum 12 Months (Full Time) Maximum 16 Months (Part Time)

Lecturer: Students Ratio

1:20 (Full Time) 1:30 (Part Time) Average Number of Students: 15 per class

Entry Requirements

For Singapore Citizen / PR

Applicants are to be aged 16 or above when applying.

GCE 'N' level with minimum 3 credits (C6) or equivalent

Applicant not meeting the entry requirement may need to undergo an interview.

OTHERS

China and other countries : High School Senior Level 2 and above or equivalent Diplomas

Indonesian : SMU2 and above

Malaysia : SPM/STPM/Chinese Independent – High School Senior 2

Others : Min Year 10 and above.

Exemption will be considered for applicants with related working experience or graduates from other design schools. (Exemption for design modules is strictly based on portfolio evaluation and interview)

"CMA is a warm family that accepts anyone who's passionate about Design. They have trained me up to be an award-winning designer. With their 3-in-1 MAD formula, along with the array of top-notch lecturers, I am all ready to stand out in the creative industry!"